Authorities combat plague that causes skin damage in eastern Venezuela

“Hylesia metabus”, an insect known in the country as “hairy palometa”.

The authorities of Venezuela are fighting a plague of “Hylesia metabus”, an insect known in the country as “hairy pigeon” that causes skin problems in people, and that has spread through states located in the east, reported this Sunday the Ministry of Health.

In a Twitter message, the State Ministry indicated that “fumigation work against the insect” began in the states of Sucre, Delta Amacuro and Monagas, three regions located in front of the Caribbean Sea, where more than two million people reside.

The Ministry of Health published, on the same social network, a video that shows a small plane flying over green areas, on which it drops fumigation chemicals.

In Sucre alone, aerial spraying of 10,000 hectares of mangroves belonging to the Gulf of Paria has begun, a task with which they hope to attack the insect in its larva phase.

A total of “380,000 inhabitants of the Eje de Paria will benefit from the spraying process,” which “will decrease the population density of the hairy pomfret,” the Government indicated on Twitter.

The Venezuelan Government also installed stations to attract and capture the insect in some locations, such as in the town of Caripito, in the state of Monagas.

These insects release a stinging substance that has caused epidermal dermatitis in hundreds of people in recent weeks, according to local media reports, without authorities confirming the total number of people affected so far by this pest.

EFE

Related